United We Stand

What an incredible amount of opportunity this week holds. Today I will be preaching a message that God has burned into my heart called, “All for One and One for All.” It is taken from Philippians 2:2 and centers on a unity in spirit. That is ironic on the eve of the Southern Baptist Convention to be held in San Antonio. The outline is simple and comes from just one verse.

Be of the same mind.
Maintain the same love.
Be united in Spirit.
Be intent on one purpose.

While reading about the word that is translated mind, I found that it could easily be translated opinion as well. I have been told all of my life that we Baptist are entitled to our own opinion, yet in the church Paul is saying that our opinions ought to be the same. He also writes on the same subject in Romans 12:2 when he says our minds are to be renewed so that we will know what the will of God is. In verse 5 of Philippians 2 he also says our attitude, another translation of the same word translated mind, should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

In order for the church to be the church, there must be a transformation of mind. Minds cannot be divided between the things of God and the things of the world. The person who stands with one foot in the church and another in the world is a person with a divided mind, not a sober mind. There will be little or no power in the church where the members are divided in mind. The transformation of mind goes beyond the individual to the whole. In order for the church to be the church, those who make up the church must share a common mind. Their opinions must agree.


Maintain the same love. Yes the word love here is that agape kind of love, which Jesus literally defined. I am told that of the literature written in Greek prior to the coming of Jesus, this word Agape was used very sparingly. It is continually used to describe the love of the Lord toward us and therefore is defined by Jesus. In John 13:34-35 it is this love that causes the world to know who are His followers.

The very word maintain reminds us that this is not a task to be accomplished without intentional effort. In the area where I was raised we had dirt roads. No oil top, a few black tops, but most of the roads other than state highways to this day are dirt. The county owns what we called maintainers. Some call them a scraper, but let it be known that they have to continually scrape the dirt from the ditches upon the road in order for it to be maintained. If there is a maintenance mode the church needs to be in today, it is the maintenance of Agape love for one another.

United in spirit. This phrase has also been translated as “in one accord.” Notice that it does not say uniform in spirit but united in spirit. In one accord is quite different than all one chord. In one accord leaves ample room for a variety of instruments to work together just as Romans 12 reminds us that there are many members of the body who bring together a variety of gifts to make a beautiful music. While all four of these imperatives work together as a whole, it is this unity of spirit or lack of it that poses one of the greatest threats to the health of the church. Spirit literally means wind and is used to describe the heart, soul, and essence of one’s life. We could say a person has a cheerful spirit or a sad spirit. We are speaking of their demeanor knowing full well that it is a person’s demeanor that shapes their life. So here, the Bible is speaking of the demeanor and will of a local church body. It is to be united. Haven’t you heard it said, united we stand, divided we fall. Jesus told us in Luke 11:25 that any house divided against itself will not stand. When the opinions or minds of the people in a congregation are not the same, the spirit will be divided. When the spirit is divided, the house will fall.

The opposite of a united spirit is a divided spirit or a contentious spirit. Some years ago, while my boys were playing baseball, we traveled to a nearby town for them to play. A man stood behind the backstop and taunted the umpire. The umpire was a young man, maybe 19 or 20 years old. The man had a very contentious spirit and was just waiting for the umpire to miss a call by some 1/10,000 of an inch, upon which time he would go into a tirade against the call. The man was contentious hoping to sway the umpire to call for his grandson who was pitching. He had a contentious spirit.

I was listening to Herb Reavis from North Jacksonville Baptist Church in Florida the other day that said this about this subject. He said, "it is not the mean people who are destroying churches today." It is the nice people. The mean people say what they will say and the nice people do nothing. If we are to have unity in the church, the nice people have to stand up. I thought about that day at the ballpark. I simply moved over next to the man and when he disagreed with the call, I simply disagreed with him. When he said it must have been a ball, I said it looked like a strike. Do you know in short order, this man quit yelling at the umpire and our boys had a good contest? It is the same way in the church. Minority voices often find that they can control a church by verbal dissent, which dampens the spirit and destroys unity. So what do we do? When someone says I didn’t like that song and you did, simply say, I am sorry that you did not like that song but it really ministered to me. When they say, I wish we wouldn’t do that and you think it is ok, say so. Stand up. By standing up you will quiet the voices of dissention opening the door for a unity of spirit.

Intent on one purpose. Phil. 3:10-14 That purpose is not in the past it is in the present and the future. It is not about yesterday but today. It is not only about tomorrow and glory but today and walking with Him. Our purpose is summed up in the great commission where Jesus told his followers to go and make disciples of all the nations. That commission has been accepted and is the mission of the church. But our overarching purpose ladies and gentlemen is to glorify Jesus. Some have said that is knowing Jesus and making Him known. The word intent is not merely about a simmering intention but more closely thought of as being intense. It is one that knows, neither life, nor death, nor principalities, nor powers shall separate us from the love of Christ. It is the intensity that the Hebrew writer spoke of when he said Heb 12:1-2
Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
NASU

Imagine this, hearts that are intense on one purpose. That intensity might be like the intense furnace where the three Hebrew children survived the fiery furnace. Intent like the hot sun in the desert on a clear sunny day in early August.

There it is. All things lined up in one direction. Minds, love, spirit and purpose. What could God do with such a church? In these days of our convention, what could God do with such a convention?

In addition to my attendance at the convention this week, our church will be conducting a Bible School in small Texas community that has no Baptist witness.

My what opportunities God is giving us this week. May He be glorified in all we do.